


How to Train Your Avatar

by avatar_dragon_rider



Series: Old Wattpad Stuff [4]
Category: Avatar (2009), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, again So Many Damn Character Tags Why, canon character name changes to correlate with the AU, crossposting the better-written Wattpad fics, just go with it okay i'm trying here, yes Jack and Hiccup are twin brothers sue me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:50:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9494261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avatar_dragon_rider/pseuds/avatar_dragon_rider
Summary: Harvey "Hiccup" Haddock is a former member of the army. When an explosion goes off during a field mission, he loses his lower left leg and his right leg is now numb from the knee down. He has a prosthetic for his left leg and a brace for his right. Now dependent on crutches, he's not sure what to do anymore...until he finds out his twin brother Jack was forcibly drowned for his place in the Avatar Program on Pandora. Hiccup was given his brother's place, and the former soldier accepted. Hiccup had helped Jack study for the program, and was well-read on the Avatar Program and even knew a bit of the Na'vi language. But none of those books told him what to do if you fall in love with a native...





	1. This is Pandora

**Author's Note:**

> Avatar AU for HTTYD. Because I'm a huge nerd and watching Avatar gave me this idea and I just couldn't not write it. Enjoy yet another fanfiction that will take me forever to complete. Warnings for language and a mild mating scene later in the fic.

"Masks on!" yelled the commander as the ship started to land. "You lose that mask, you're unconscious in 20 seconds and dead in four minutes! Let's have no one dead today, it looks very bad on my report!"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "No promises," he muttered as he got his mask out of the glass box above his head. He secured it over his face as the ship landed, the large door opening and everyone running out.

Hiccup watched the other men leave before pulling his pack over his shoulders, then grabbed his crutches and stood up, making his way towards the door.

"Let's go, soldier!" the commander yelled at Hiccup. "Do not make me wait for you!"

"You wouldn't be the first," Hiccup snarked as he passed the commander, working his way down the ramp while trying not to slip and fall flat on his face on his first day.

Hiccup looked around, taking a mental survey of his surroundings. The base was huge, with large construction equipment and men in giant robotic suits traveling throughout the entire thing. Hiccup noticed several large arrows the size of humans stuck in the wheels of the construction equipment. He made his way towards the dining hall, where all new recruits were scheduled to meet. He blatantly ignored the stares and whispers of the other soldiers as he passed them, knowing exactly what they were saying.

"I've seen people leave here on crutches before," he heard someone say, "but never arrive on them."

"You're gonna be leaving here on crutches if you don't shut your asshole," Hiccup said, stopping beside them at the door. "Oh wait, sorry, that's your mouth. You know I can't tell them apart these days, since shit seems to come out of both."

Hiccup just let them glare at his back as he went into the dining hall.

"You are not in the Archipelago anymore," the general, Drago Bludvist, was saying as Hiccup came in. "You are on Pandora. One of the most hostile environments known to man."

Hiccup sat down at a table in the back, leaning his crutches against the table as Drago continued to talk.

"We have an indigenous group of humanoids called the Na'vi," Drago said. "They are primitive in technology, but evolved in biology. They are fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that will stop your heart in less than one minute. They are very hard to kill."

 _No shit,_ Hiccup thought to himself.

"My job on this base is to keep you alive. I will not succeed." Drago paused for effect, looking at each recruit in turn. "Not with all of you. That being said, there are a few rules you need to follow..."

Hiccup snickered to himself. Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put one's mind at ease.

<><><><><><><><>

"Harvey!" someone called as Hiccup made his way down the science wing. Hiccup stopped mid-swing and glanced over his shoulder at the pudgy blonde man jogging towards him. "You're Harvey Haddock, right? Jack's brother?"

"Yeah," Hiccup said, lodging his crutch under his arm so he could shake the man's hand. "Call me Hiccup. Most everyone does."

"Jack mentioned you had a strange nickname," the man confirmed. "I'm Freddie Ingerman. I went through avatar training with your brother. He called me--"

"Fishlegs," Hiccup mused, remembering the times Jack would talk about how Freddie reminded him of a fish with legs. "Yeah, I think he mentioned you."

"You look a lot like him," Fishlegs remarked. "Just with scragglier hair. And a more pronounced jawline, and tanner skin, and--"

"So where's the brains behind this whole operation?" Hiccup interrupted, hoping to get the topic off his deceased twin.

"That would be me," said a tall, skinny man with long pale-blonde dreadlocks as he walked towards them.

"Right," Hiccup said as Fishlegs rolled his eyes.

The man laughed. "I'm just kidding." He extended his hand to Hiccup, who shook it. "Thomas Thorston, or Tuffnut as everyone calls me around here. I'm one of the lead scientists, though I wish I was in charge. The things I could do for this base--"

"Okay, moving on!" Fishlegs interrupted. "We keep the avatars over here." He walked with Tuffnut, leading the way to the two giant tanks with fully-grown Na'vi men inside. Hiccup trailed behind on his crutches, his prosthetic tapping on the floor wherever it hit. The brace he kept on his right leg so it would support his weight was starting to get uncomfortable; he'd have to adjust it later.

"Damn, they got big," Hiccup remarked, admiring the avatars.

"They fully matured on the flight out," Tuffnut said, looking at Fishlegs's avatar. It was significantly less fat, with a much thinner waist and black hair, unlike the human's bright blonde.

Hiccup moved over to look at the other avatar. This one very closely resembled Jack, aside from the black hair, of course; Jack had dyed his white a long time ago, earning him the nickname Jack Frost.

"Looks like him," Hiccup said, smirking slightly at the uncanny resemblance.

"Looks like you," said Fishlegs, placing a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. "This is your avatar now."

Hiccup put a hand against the glass, fighting the sad smile that was working its way to the surface.


	2. Welcome to Science Geek Hell

"Geez, does everyone wear a lab coat around here?" Hiccup remarked as he walked alongside Tuffnut and Fishlegs. "It's like I've fallen into Science Geek Hell."

"Yep, that pretty much sums the place up," Tuffnut said. "I've been trying to convince the boss to allow us to wear more casual clothing, but--"

"So, just a quick overview of what we've been doing here before you meet the boss," Fishlegs said, interrupting Tuffnut before he could jump onto another rant about Heather's strict rules. "Each driver is genetically matched to his own avatar so all the nervous systems are in tune. Since you and Jack are genetically identical--"

"I can drive his avatar," Hiccup finished with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, I already received the run-down from the government shits who gave me this job."

"I like this guy!" Tuff clapped Hiccup on the shoulder, unintentionally causing the corresponding crutch to slip on the metal floor. Hiccup dug his booted prosthetic into the ground to keep himself upright. Tuff didn't even notice. "Anybody who bashes the government is a friend of mine!"

"Might not want to say that to the people who pay you," a woman around their age said as she walked over to them. "They might decide to stop the flow of cash, and then where would you be?"

Tuff rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Heather."

Hiccup remembered Jack talking about the woman who ran the Avatar Program, Heather De'range. She was just as Jack had described: thick black hair tied into a braid that sat on her left shoulder, ever-present lab coat, pale skin, grassy green eyes that pierced through to your soul, as if she could stare into the thing itself.

Heather turned to Hiccup, looking him up and down. "You're handicapped."

"Yeah." Hiccup fought back the urge to bite back with an explicit retort. "So?"

"They didn't say you were handicapped."

"It's just a physical handicap," Fishlegs said, stepping in between Hiccup and Heather. "It shouldn't affect his performance in driving the avatar."

Heather rolled her eyes then looked at Fishlegs. "You must be his training partner. Ingerman, right?"

Fishlegs nodded. "That's me. You can call me Fishlegs, though."

"I'll stick to the last names, thanks. Less likely to mix up you idiots." She shot Hiccup another look. "How much lab time have you had?" she asked him.

"Zip," Hiccup answered.

"How's your Na'vi?"

Hiccup shrugged, as well as he could with crutches under his arms. "Basic stuff. Preschool, kindergarten level."

Heather's expression softened. "Well, at least he's not a complete loss. I expect you back here tomorrow at 0800. Try to at least act like you know what you're doing. I don't need idiots like you fucking things up in my department." With that, she walked away.

That was when Hiccup decided to snark. "Nice lady. Great people skills. Is she always that polite?"

Tuffnut burst out laughing. "Man, you just keep getting better! Is there no end to your awesomeness?"

Fishlegs rolled his eyes. "Come on, you bunk with us."

"Well there goes the neighborhood."

If dying of laughter was possible, Tuffnut would have keeled over on the spot.

<><><><><><><>

Hiccup was the first one awake the following morning. His alarm went off at four in the morning, giving him plenty of time to shower, change, and eat before his first run with the avatar. He slipped into the bathroom, careful not to wake his snoring roommates with the tapping of his crutches on the hard floor.

While the water heated up, Hiccup stared at his shirtless form in the full-length mirror that covered the entirety of the door to the bedroom. Tattoos covered his torso, leftovers from a teenage rebellious phase that Hiccup had gone through in his senior year of high school. Most of them were dragons--a Chinese one curled on his upper left arm, the head by his shoulder; another swirled on his chest over his heart; another on his right elbow with its wings spread. Twin pistols were tattooed by his hips, one on each side with their barrels pointing downward, the ends disappearing into his pants, giving the impression of guns holstered in his pants. The most recent, a snowflake, sat on the left side of his neck, as a memento of his brother. Hiccup's hand slowly traveled up to the snowflake, where he rubbed it tenderly. The tingling of the new tattoo had long since stopped, but the pain of losing his brother did not. 

In the shower, Hiccup sat on the small bench, the steam of the hot water leaking out over and around the shower curtain. His prosthetic and brace off, Hiccup felt more vulnerable than ever. He knew that no matter how hard he tried, he'd never be accepted here, among all these science majors. He was a soldier, hardened by battle but softened by the ostracism of his childhood and early teens. He would never fit anywhere, not on the battlefield, not on Pandora, not even in his own home, where his mother never existed and his father was a drunk. The fall of the water helped to hide his quiet sobs, merging with the tears already spilling out of his eyes. In over six months, he hadn't allowed himself to cry over Jack, but here, alone, with the pressure of a dozen people expecting him to be good at something he knew next to nothing about, broke his emotions until he just couldn't take it anymore.

Hiccup decided he wasn't just in Science Geek Hell. He was in the equivalent of Hell itself, with no friends, no parents, and no brother to offer him support.


End file.
